Photography by Simon Moody (Graphic)

The Secret Pro

Clenbuterol, Tour shenanigans, and equipment

by The Secret Pro

It's been far too long since the Secret Pro has featured here and I'm pleased to see him back. In this edition he gives some background to the Mick Rogers saga, talks about mixed up blood bags, Tour shenanigans, and equipment failures. Read it at your own peril.

It’s been a while since I’ve written here on CyclingTips and I apologise for that. I had a very low-key off-season, rode a heap of k’s, and stayed out of the “scene”. It’s nice to come back home and get out of the bubble for a while to see my old mates and just ride like I used to. Now it’s race season and I’m back in the swing of things and can hopefully write more often.

One thing you may not have heard about that’s going on behind the scenes is the Mick Rogers saga. As you know he tested positive for clenbuterol a week after the Tour of Beijing when he won the Japan Cup. Of course we always hear the same excuses and denials about these kinds of things being accidental, but in Mick’s case, I believe this to be the truth.

You’ll be hearing an announcement on the decision on Mick’s B-sample very soon, but first let me give you some background on the Tour of Beijing.

At the Tour of Beijing there were rumours going around the peloton — and let me stress that these were rumours — that clenbuterol was off the testing list for that race. (ed: the UCI maintains that they were testing though) We didn’t see an official UCI communique on this, but people seemed pretty confident in this unofficial decision. The organisers apparently went through a lot of effort to get uncontaminated food, but the rumour was that even the testers were coming back positive for clenbuterol when they tested themselves. All food was provided by the race organisers (buffet style) at the hotel, but food contamination was on everyone’s mind. Lots of riders just stuck to the fried rice the whole time as it seemed to be the safest thing, but even that had pork, egg and who knows what else in it. On the last evening in Beijing many of the riders wanted to get out for a night on the town and Mick was one of them.

Nobody who was at the Tour of Beijing would have wanted to win the Japan Cup. Everyone was worried about testing positive for clenbuterol and any win would obviously be tested. If it is true about clenbuterol not being tested in China, it seems that the Japanese anti-doping authorities didn’t get the message.

In the scheme of things, Japan Cup is equivalent to winning a regular Sunday club race. Why would anyone risk ‘preparing’ for that? People I’ve spoken to that have been around for a while says they haven’t heard of anyone taking clenbuterol in the past 20 years. You’d be ‘glowing’ for too long.

Every rider agrees that Mick’s case is a muck-up, but at the same time nobody is publicly jumping to his defense.

It makes no sense that anyone would take clenbuterol with the testing that’s done these days. I’m not even sure Contador’s positive clenbuterol test was deliberate. Some have suggested that he might have used a contaminated blood bag. Who knows…

I’ve heard of many stories in the past where bags get mixed up. A rider [ed. name redacted] who was done for cocaine in the Giro a few years back tested positive because he’d been using his cousin’s blood. He didn’t know he had a coke habit until it showed up in his test results after he won a race.

Vino and Kashechkin got their blood bags mixed up and were subsequently caught in the 2007 TdF. If they had different blood types they could have died. Even paying Ferrari top dollar didn’t keep them safe from a muck-up like that.

Anyway, leaving the heavy stuff behind for a moment, here’s a lighthearted story about the shenanigans that sometimes go on that you’ll find a little more entertaining.

During a fairly big race a while back a teammate of mine decided to go out on the piss the night before an “easy” stage. He went out all night and only had about an hour of sleep before we were on the road again.

As usual things picked up to a ripping pace in the first hour and my teammate gets dropped instantly, never to be seen again all day. Well, almost. Some 200km later he comes rolling past us at the finish line only a couple minutes after the main bunch. None of us could believe our eyes. In his inebriated state he should have missed the time cut!

He headed straight over to the bus, asked for one of the leaders’ jerseys we had, signed it, and gave it to the police officer who had motorpaced him (or let him hang on) for the entire route! What happens on tour stays on tour…

While I think of it, we pros often get asked about our favourite equipment and we’re pretty much obliged to say positive things about whatever we’re using at the time. The truth is that the best wheels I’ve ever ridden are Lightweights. The Zipp Firecrests or any wide-profile (i.e. 25mm) wheel seem to be the fastest wheel if you’re travelling in the straight line, but forget it if you’re going around lots of corners. Lightweight are on another level when it comes to accelerating out of the corners and going uphill.

And the worst equipment that I have ever heard of being used in the peloton would be Cole wheels. I heard a story about three or four guys all on Cole wheels having their front wheels all collapse in the same race while breaking on a steep descent on a very hot day. The wheels just melted and disintegrated. We haven’t seen them around since.

And finally, let’s talk about the Flemish Classics coming up. My tip? Cancellara. He always goes crap in Tirreno-Adriatico but then he rocks up the next week and dominates. I can’t see anyone beating him but now that Sagan is a year stronger he might be able to stay with Fabian. But Sagan is sure to win something big this season.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Tags: The Secret Pro

Sean

I’d like to declare, i’m not the secret pro.
Vanilla_Thrilla

No No Mr Pro, the cocaine was from sweets that his Aunt had bought for him from Peru….

Hilarious

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilberto_Simoni
- Vanilla_Thrilla
  
  It gets better, that was his second (even less believable) attempt at an excuse after his first one was rejected
  http://www.dopeology.org/incidents/Simoni-positive/
  
  Thank God cycling has moved on from that era. What a joke
  - Classic
    
    Tennis hasn’t…Richard Gasquet was cleared on appeal a few years ago claiming his positive test to cocaine was from kissing a girl in a night club who ‘must had had it on her lips’… Don’t even get me started on Venus a Williams avoiding the testers in her ‘panic room’ because she was suet it was a stalker (no one asked why she didn’t hear the tester say who they were).
CB

The rider testing positive to cocaine at the Giro (2003), for anyone who follows this sport somewhat seriously, was there any need to hide that name? Great column, a real coup for this site, but the tendency of TSP to be accommodating and sympathetic to non-europeans who test positive, and speculative or even cynical towards guys like Contador detracts from the columnists credibility. Perhaps we need a few secret pros to balance things out a bit?
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  The rider was later cleared. That’s why his name couldn’t be put in.
  - donncha
    
    He wasn’t sanctioned. He still tested positive. No need to hide the name.
    - CB
      
      A rider who also failed a hematocrit test in 1998. A close confidant of Ricardo Ricco, yet we’re hiding his name. Well, if it must be done, so be it.
      - Johnson
        
        Does it rhyme with Dilberto Jimoni?
        
        jules
        
        Si
        
        Abdu
        
        Aha! Alberto Babboni, knew he was dodgy!
Nitro

Great to see you back !

Wishing you all the best for a great season, and keep the insights coming. Great to be able to read the “inside” story free from the politics and sponsors…
- jules
  
  unless s/he’s sponsored by Lightweight ;)
Notso Swift

WELCOME BACK!
http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips

For those of you who are interested, here’s a warning from Cookson to all of the national federations about the risks of accidental positives in China and Mexico.

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/16237/UCI-instructs-World-Cycling-Centre-athletes-not-to-consume-meat-in-China-and-Mexico-due-to-Clenbuterol-risk.aspx
- Dave
  
  The FIA has also had warnings about the beef issued to WRC teams in the years that Rally Mexico is on the schedule, it’s a part of any sport contested in Mexico except baseball.
Michele

I thought at the time re: Mick that it was a accidental in-gestation of Clenbuterol. I also thought at the time that perhaps he’s a very lucky/unlucky rider.

Lucky in as much as he got through his years at T-Mobile with a fair bit of mud slung at him, and none of it really sticking. Association with Ferrari, team mates saying he was doing etc.

Unlucky now because of this.

Maybe that is one of the reasons why “nobody is publicly jumping to his defense”. Perhaps they feel he’s dodged a few bullets in times past, and what goes around, comes around.
- Tricky Dicky
  
  Bingo. I recall a few pros tweeting “karma” when the news about Rogers came out.
  On the wheels observation, you wouldn’t want to be the Coles Wheels rep today.
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    I think that was Tyler Hamilton. It’s unlikely that it was coincidental given the timing. https://twitter.com/Ty_Hamilton/status/413354748234833921
- Strictly B Grade
  
  I heard a similar rumour about Rogers; that all riders that
  did Beijing were testing positive but given he’d *allegedly* dodged so
  many bullets they decided to ping him.
  - Dave
    
    It’s natural for fans and guys still butthurt over getting caught (hi Tyler!) to have a laugh when someone like Contador, Rogers or Schleck finally goes down. But unless Rogers was the target of a long investigation like Lance Armstrong was (which I would find very surprising) that rumour sounds way too far fetched to be plausible.
    
    If they did use that logic, they would have taken down every rider in the field who had been an elite rider at any point during the ‘good old days’ when Lance ruled the peleton.
    - Strictly B Grade
      
      I never claimed it was credible; it went along
      the lines of “Tom heard it from Dick who knows Harry who knows {insert three more degrees of separation} who knows a mechanic that worked for Sky.”
      
      One thing Tyler Hamilton did have right in his book; cyclists are a bunch of gossips.
SLH

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-the-social-media-revolution-ended-the-popularity-of-group-sex-in-the-afl-20140401-zqpfa.html
Rosco

Paying out on zipps. Finally someone cuts through the marketing BS.
- Paolo
  
  Here too. Eventually the truth comes out, Lightweights to rule them all! I really dislike all the marketing BS these days.
  - Dave
    
    Except when the BS is perpetuated by Lightweights.
    - Paolo
      
      There is no BS with Lightweights.
- eatmorelard
  
  Too right. You don’t need to spend $3000 on a set of wheels after all, you need to spend $6000….
  - Paolo
    
    You only need to if you want the best, but if you need the best is another question.
http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips

I can’t claim to have invented the concept.
- The Secret Prune
  
  No, but you still came up with the idea for this forum and made it cycling specific. It’s got worldwide recognition and heaps of big names talking about it.
  
  Nice one.
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    Thanks! Couldn’t have done it without The Secret Pro and my mate (Jamie Jowett) who suggested the idea.
CB

Last comment from me (I have actual work to do) but has CT seen The Age now has a ‘secret footballer’ column? Thoughts?
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  The idea for the Secret Pro concept came from The Secret Footballer on the Guardian (which they may have taken from somewhere else) so I can’t claim to have invented it.
Cam

Perhaps Mick Rogers is the Secret Pro…
- http://www.cyclingtips.com.au Steve H
  
  My guess is the secret Pro is the best rider in his family. One of his family won a title that he has come close to many times.
- Michele
  
  Late last year I got TSP down to 8 riders. Mick doesn’t fit the criteria.
  
  If you read through their posts, and only look at races they definitely said they did, and not just races they spoke about, 8 riders fit the bill.
  
  And then when you read the 8 names, you could safely assume 4, if not 5 would not make the grade.
  
  I gave up on doing this though; after all I would much rather read about what they have to say about the bunch, then wondering who says it.
  - jules
    
    and leading them to conclude that they had better wrap it up before they are identified
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    I don’t want to turn this into a guessing game - it’s not the point - but there have been enough red herrings thrown in to protect his identity from being found out by a process of elimination. You can read more about how we go about this here: http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/05/the-secret-pro-hoax-or-not/
    - Michele
      
      Exactly right. That’s why I stopped doing so. TSP provides some really great insight. Since most professional sports people talk in pre-rehearsed cliches, it’s so refreshing to read.
    - Dave
      
      And of course the biggest INSITE into that red herring process yesterday morning.
    - Nitro
      
      I know lots of people will spend lots of time trying to work out who TSP is, but personally I’d rather not know…
      
      If TSP is revealed the insights will dry up (I doubt anyone else would want the role if it ends badly), and the fun ceases…
      
      Its the kind of guessing game thats fun - right up to the point that someone guesses right…
      
      Everyone remembers what happened to “The Stig” right ?
      - Dave
        
        Which one - the first one fired off an aircraft carrier in an old Jag, or the second one shot in the back by Richard Hammond?
    - Hunter
      
      I’m not interested in knowing who the SP is but I am curious whether this years SP is the same as previous years? There has been in a big gap in posts.
badakjawa

Guilty. Semi-acceptance of rumours cannot possibly be a defence.
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Did you read “the testers were coming back positive for clenbuterol when they tested themselves” after eating the hotel food?
  - Guest
    
    Yep.